advice please from you green fingered mns; dank shaded damp border

[Aperolspritzer]

Although my back garden faces south, the border along the bottom is against the back fence and neighbours tall trees so gets hardly any sun. As a result it's a bit of a brown and green morass and I would love to be able to plant in some colour - is there a miracle plant/plants that will come back each year

cyclamen, violets and hellebores

I always think of Hostas in this setting because my mother (a keen gardener) had some which had big leaves that sparkled with water drops when it rained. They grew in a damp, dark, shaded spot that never got sun.

This link to shade loving plants talks about Hostas and other ideas for a shady spot.

I just wonder if it is a very dry spot under trees so water may be the bigger issue rather than shade though?

Hellebores - such as Helleborus foetidus do well in dry shade - interesting glossy leaves and green flowers, so not much 'colour' but at least interest. you might find lilly of the valley copes ok - I can remember a deep border full of it in a similar situation at my grandparents' house.

Have just asked my gardening whiz DH for suggestions - our garden has a few spots like yours OP.

Rodgersia
Hostas
Trillium
Ligularia

thank you all!!! - i'm off to the garden centre with my list

I love pulmonaria, also known as lungwort. Very beautiful.

marking my place, we have a north-ish facing garden and the bit that should get sun is shaded from the trees growing on the canal embankment behind our garden...

have to go to work now but will have a look at suggestions later (and badger dh into a trip to the garden centre, seeing as it is mother's day....)

I've had some really good ideas from the Long Acre Plant website that another poster told me about earlier.It suggests ideas for dry shade and wet shade plantings.Another useful site is Beth Chatto's gardens .There is a list of plants that they grow successfully in shade.I grow all of the above plants mentioned above but i am also currently trying the blue and lilac meconopsis [himalayan poppy] this year.This apparently grows well in shade.Also don't forget camellias as these are truly lovely this year and anemones [both windflower and japanese anemones later on ].

The Long Acre Plants site is brilliant, it gives you everything you need to grow an amazing garden in damp shade.
Here's the link.
www.plantsforshade.co.uk/

At the moment my damp shady garden is sporting cyclamen, hellebores and tiarella.

Later I will look forward to:
Magnolia stellata
Digitalis (Foxgloves)
Aconitum
Epimedium
Hardy geraniums
Thalictrum

And the absolute star, Omphalodes cappadocicia, which flowers little blue stars for months on end.

Be careful of the Himalayan poppy; it is devilishly difficult to grow and I have had a client spend £50 on young plants to only have just three of them flower; the rest just died away (and I was looking after them all really well so it couldn't have been me )

They are very beguiling and sought after but so often a let down.

I've only 3 of the blue ones and some seeds for the lilac ones.I think these poppies are stunningly beautiful but i am not holding out much hope[kids have been a bit enthusiastic with the watering and broken the stems-but more leaves are growing!].Apparently they don't flower for the first year anyway.I have just planted some peach sorbet poppies directly into the ground [new ones from Thomp. & Morgan].So will have to see whether these germinate well or are difficult.

We are still having hard frosts here so I would think it's a bit early to be sowing seeds out yet, but I could be wrong. I always try to hold back a good portion of the packet and do successional sowing when I remember

I've got a similar area in my south-facing garden and was told hostas were the way to go. I planted several varieties and the effect was most gratifying at first, but I ended up fighting a running battle with slugs which I lost. The little blighters just love hostas.

At the moment I just plant begonias in late spring (don't mind shade and slugs don't like them) for a bit of colour. They soldier on until late autumn, but the effect is a bit boring. Think perhaps I should try some of the suggestions on here.

I didn't used to be particularly thrilled about it, but now I am really pleased that I have a damp shady patch. It enables me to grow some lovely things which I couldn't do otherwise, I've learned a lot.